Ghosts
by The Carrot
Summary: Sam falls asleep in the conference room and has an... odd, dream. But whose to say the dream wasn't real?


Eh gawds, It's 1:21 am on a… ugh Friday Morning…. I started writing the second last chapter to Leaving, then kind of branched off to do this… thing. I'm not entirely sure what it is… but it was… long. Not bad for four hours of writing and donairs for dinner…

I don't own it… thank god. I highly doubt this is worth your time.

XxX

Sam blinked staring at the figure in front of him. "No way."

"Yes way." The man smirked back at his friends kicked in the stomach expression.

"No."

"Yup."

"No… N-no, this isn't possible," The blonde took a few steps back, his legs running into the bar stool behind him almost causing him to trip.

"Maybe you ought to sit down Braddock." Brown eyes twinkled with amusement as he stepped forward to stand in front of Sam, pushing down on the other mans shoulders he made Sam practically collapse onto the seat behind him.

Mouth still gaping open Sam watched as the brunette sat down beside him, leaning his elbow on the bar before letting his head rest on his palm. "H-how… How is this possible?" he asked finally finding his tongue. "A-am I dead?"

The man in the green outfit laughed loudly clapping his friend on his other shoulder. "No Braddock, you aren't dead, probably just asleep."

"Probably just asleep?" Sam repeated dumbfounded. "B-but Matt, you're dead."

"Yes I am, but you're not." The brunette smiled. "And hopefully it'll stay that way for a while yet, and no you're not losing your mind." He added seeing the blonde open his mouth to speak once more. "You're just here."

Sam looked over his best friend, Matt looked no different then the day he last saw him, hair cut short, a fading scar on his neck… and those amused brown eyes staring back at him. "So you're still dead… but-"

"You're still kinda dense aren't you?"

The sound of the little girls voice behind him had Sam whipping around in his seat just in time to see a child around six years old walk up to the large stool on Sams other side. Her blonde hair was pulled back in pigtails, her blue eyes focused on the glass of milk in her hands, trying not to spill any on her yellow sundress. Her feet were bare as she set the glass on the bar and pulled herself up into the red stool.

"Hey little misses, you get lost or something on your way over?" Matt chuckled as the little girl glared over at him.

She just stuck her tongue out at the older man and plopped down in her seat, catching the pale colour of the other blondes face. "What's up with you Sammy? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Not for the first time that night Sams voice caught in his throat. "Sarah?"

"Yeah?" blue eyes the same shade as his looked back at him confused. When her brother didn't move Sarah rolled her eyes. "It's been twenty years, you think you could give me a hug or a 'hi, how are you?'" Her complaint was cut short as she found herself getting swept off the stool into a bone crushing hug as Sam shot to his feet.

The sniper felt his eyes start to water as he clutched the form of his late sister to him. He didn't care if this was a dream or not anymore. "Oh gods, Sarah, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He muttered pressing his cheek to the side of her head, almost trying to memorize the way it had felt to have a sister.

Young blue eyes softened as she glanced at Matt over her brothers shoulders. Wrapping her smaller arms around his neck, Sarah smiled burying her face into Sams shoulder. "You're such a dope Sammy."

"Awwww, brother and sister, back together at last."

Sam pulled back a bit from his sister at the new voice. Looking over he saw a familiar brunette in army greens with her hands on her hips. Her brown hair was pulled back into its usual French braid. "Lee?"

"Hey Blondie." She greeted lifting up a hand in a slight wave.

His head was spinning. Reluctantly Sam let go of his little sister to plop heavily onto his own stool his eyes darting between the three dead people around the room, unable to comprehend what was happening.

As if sensing his confusion Sarah chuckled, sliding her glass of milk a bit to her left and gingerly climbed over to take a seat on Sams knee. "Scared yet?"

Rubbing the back of his neck Sam could only shrug, unable to put into words how creeped out, albeit happily creeped out, he was.

"Don't worry too much about it," Lee laughed coming up to the bar. Placing a hand on Sams back, feeling as solid as a live person, she leant over and gave him a light kiss on the cheek causing Sara to scowl into her milk.

Matt frowned also, "How come I never got a kiss when I showed up?" he asked the other brunette.

Lee smiled at him sweetly. "Because you're married and Sam's not." She just laughed at the mans put out expression.

"So how are you all here? How exactly am I here?" Sam piqued up cutting off one of their infamous arguments for arguments sake out of pure habit. Then when he really thought of it added, "Where exactly is here anyways?"

Matt was about to reply but Lee cut him off with an original Wagner glare. "You know we can't tell him that, we're breaking enough rules as it is just by being here."

"Then a few more isn't really going to matter." The brunette muttered under his breath.

Lee crossed her arms but paused as another voice popped up behind her.

"Aww, am I late?" Sam felt his stomach drop at the sound of the voice.

"Seems to be a recurring thing even after all our work." The woman stated turning around. "Sarah was behind too." 

"Probably better this way. All at once would've given him a heart attack."

The blonde sniper turned his head slowly and Sarah chuckled as his jaw fell slack. Setting her milk back down she climbed off her brother knees to sit on Matt's lap instead letting the other blonde get to his feet.

'He looks good.' Sam thought to himself as the newcomer came up to them dressed in his regular gray outfit. "Lou."

"Hey Braddock." The late SRU officer grinned clasping hands with the blonde and pulling him into a quick embrace. "How's life been?"

Sam gave a weak laugh looking over his friend. "What can I say, keeping the world safe so others may-"

"-may eat pie." Lou finished making the two men laugh for real. "How are the others?"

"We all miss you." The sniper stated honestly leading Lou back towards the set of stools.

The dark skinned man snorted leaning his back against the bar. "I should hope so."

"Are we just going to make chit chat all day or what?" Sarah huffed as Matt set her on the floor. She immediately grabbed Lee's hand and dragged her over to the old style jute box in the corner. "We'll pick some music we can dance too."

Lou smiled. "Make it a fast one; I don't have a long time here kid." Sarah just waved him off.

"Someplace more pressing to be?" Sam questioned as Matt smirked knowingly from beside him.

"Oh, he just has to go get his butt handed to him one more time." The brunette army man laughed.

Blue eyes turned to Lou raising an eyebrow.

The ex-SRU officer just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "We have a betting pool going on the other side, we pair up in teams of two or more for the occasional hockey matches." He explained. "A couple of the other guys and I have been trying for ages now to beat this Kovacs kid and his friend Howie."

Sam pursed his lips, the picture of Darren's limp form flashing before his eyes at the mention of the young man. "I take it he's good?" He tried not to let his voice crack.

Matt nodded. "You bet your ass; he could've been a hockey pro or so he likes to brag. Never seen a kid so damn happy to be dead before."

Silence settled for a moment, Matt and Lou exchanging curious glances at the soft smile that spread over Sam's features. The moment was cut short however as music blared from the box in the corner.

Sarah scrambled over to her brother grabbing his hand and pulling him out into the barren floor. "Come on, I wanna dance."

"I'll prep some drinks." Lee laughed going behind the bar and grabbing the martini shaker twirling it in her hand.

"You even have alcohol in this place?" Sam asked watching Lee pour a few things into the metal contraption before beginning to shake it.

The woman shook her head with a playful frown. "Now Blondie, there's children present." She switched hands, shaking it on her other side. "It's just milk and chocolate."

Sam never had time to question the choice of milk before Sarah grabbed each of his hands in her own. He did have time to marvel how small she was. When he had been younger it wasn't so bad to dance with her because they hadn't been too different in height…but now… "This used to work a lot better when I was still eight."

The blonde child shrugged moving to place her feet on Sam's shoes. "It's okay, you can dance for me."

"Yes your highness." The older Braddock said bowing his head as he started around the dance floor guiding them both along.

XxX

Time seemed to fly by, Sam wasn't even sure how long he had been here now, but the jute box music had slowed and now the group of the dead, and the one living soul were gathered around the bar table again, glasses half full of whatever strange milk concoction Lee had made for them.

"And Ed's all like 'Spike did this? I mean none of us can believe he would have ever actually done it, but he really did." Sam recounted as the entire group laughed. "Suffice to say Spike went into hiding for the next week and Ed never let him around the magic marker and his head ever again."

Lou wiped at the tears of laughter coming from the corner of his eyes. "Well that's better then when Spike wore that dress to a charity dance."

All sets of eyes turned to the dark skinned man, amusement clear on their faces. "Do tell." Sam proffered, he needed some new black mail against the Techie anyways.

Pulling out a photo from his pocket Lou set it on the table for the others to see. "Spike and I had a bet going that week on who'd get better scores on the range between Ed and Jules, this was before you joined us," he motioned to Sam, "I won and Spike had to attend the party dressed as a woman."

"Oh that poor man." Matt laughed handing the photo to Sam. "Heels and everything?"

"Oh yeah." Lou nodded. "It was hilarious picking out the dress for him though; it was between a brown strapless one and the pink one I had him wear."

"The brown one would have looked better on him." Sarah smiled from her perch back on Sam's lap. She had hardly let go on her brother the entire time and now she leaned against him trying to fend off sleep.

Lee sent a wicked glance to the two army men across from her. "You know, speaking of cross dressing I remember one Halloween eve in Kandahar very distinctly." 

"You promised never to mention that ever again!" Matt and Sam snapped in unison, both of their cheeks red.

"Fine, fine, spoil my fun." The woman laughed as beside her Lou's watch started beeping.

"Ah man, my game against Darren's starting soon I should head out." The SRU officer climbed to his feet stretching slightly. Reaching for his photo Lou paused thinking to himself, "You know what, why don't you keep this?" he grinned handing it back to Sam.

"You sure?" The snipers brow furrowed a bit.

"Yeah, might as well let it go to good use." Clapping Sam on the shoulder he said. "It was good to see you man, give the rest of the team my best alright?"

"I will." Sam replied giving the man a quick handshake before putting the picture into the pocket in his gray shirt. "You take care of yourself too, and tell Darren bad-ass junior says hello." At Lou's questioning glance the blonde just waved him off. "He'll know, See ya around Lou."

"Hopefully not any time soon." The dark skinned man smiled and was off, heading towards the back of the bar and was gone.

"Bad-ass junior?" Lee raised an eyebrow, "You haven't used that since the second year out in the field."

Sam just shrugged, letting his gaze fall to his sister who was struggling to keep awake. "I think it's time someone headed off to bed." He whispered quietly.

"I'mnottired." Sarah muttered unsuccessfully holding back a yawn.

"I didn't know dead people got tired." The blonde man looked over at his friends.

"Our energy runs out just like everyone else's." Lee explained coming around the bar and holding her arms out. "Pass her over, It's time for me to be heading out anyways."

The sniper nodded wrapping his arms around his sister and gently laid her in Lees grasp. Leaning down he brushed a soft kiss to the top of her forehead. "Night Sar, sweet dreams."

"Nigh' Sammy. Tell mommy, Iloveher." The little girl mumbled back before cuddling into Lees hold, out like a light.

Sam's heart damn near broke and Lee saw it. "Don't worry about her; I keep a close eye on the little rat." The army woman smiled at her old friend. "Now you take care of yourself you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." Blue eyes softened giving Lee a quick peck on the cheek too before playfully pulling her elastic out of her hair like he used to. He took her hateful glare in stride, as she couldn't do anything with Sarah in her arms. "Rob did always say you looked better with your hair down." Sam chuckled stretching the elastic in between his fingers.

"You little bastard." Lee hissed quietly as not to wake the sleeping child, her hair already slipping from its braid. "I hate it when you guys do that." Turning on her heel she started off towards the direction Lou had taken but stopped suddenly. "Oh and Sam, if you see Kate," she trailed off for a moment. "If you see Kate, tell her… there's no snow on the other side?"

'Tell her I love her?' Sam translated the stubborn woman's words into simpler terms in his head. "I will, see you later Lee."

"Bye Sam." And just like Lou, she was gone, taking the little sister he adored with her.

With a heavy sigh the blonde turned back to Matt who had his back to Sam, lifting the glass of milk to his lips and sipping it slowly.

"So," Matt started.

"So," Sam repeated making his way slowly back to the brunette. Reclaiming his seat he swallowed thickly. Silence reigned for a moment before the blonde spoke. "Why?"

Brown eyes that had once been so full of bad humour and camaraderie glanced back at him. "Why what?" he frowned. "Why are you still here?"

"No." The sniper cut him off shaking his head. "Why were you there? There in my line of fire."

Matt sighed heavily releasing his glass finally turning around in his seat to stare at his friend. "Stop it Sam." He saw blue eyes widen, "Stop trying to rationalize it, it was an accident."

"I KILLED YOU!" Sam snapped, jumping to his feet as his voice reverberating off the ghostly walls. "You can't tell me-" he froze momentarily staring at the face of his long gone friend. "You can't tell me that it was an accident…that it 'just' happened, Matt. For no reason."

The brunette soldier didn't reply right away. "You know better then anyone Sam," he watched the blue eyes fall back to the floor, "Shit happens."

His jaw went slack as Sam fell back to seat. That wasn't fair. "That's supposed to be my line." He muttered.

"And I stole it." Matt grinned as he watched the blonde bury his face in his hands and groan.

"Can I at least say I'm sorry?" Sams question was muffled by his hands.

Matt shook his head, then remembered that the other soldier wasn't looking at him. "Nope, absolutely not. You killed me, it happened, it's over and done with. Saying your sorry isn't going to make you feel any less guilty is it?" He felt Sam raise a glare to him. "I didn't think so. But, you do however owe me an extremely fulfilled life so you better have lots of stories when you get back here."

Sam just shook his head. Maybe he couldn't apologise, but it was just like Matt to want him to keep moving forward. "That sounds like a lot of work, maybe I should just stay here," he joked…sort of. "At least people on this side like me."

"You know that's pretty sad," Matt grimaced. "Most of the people you know who actually like you… are dead."

Sam blinked staring at the wide eyed brunette sitting next to him. "Nice to know you haven't changed ya cold hearted son of a bitch."

The two of them laughed, the feeling of days gone past coming rushing back. To a time when both of them were as carefree as they could be, considering their job.

A beeping from the watch on Matt's wrist startled them both. "Looks like it's time for me to head back." The dead man stated climbing to his feet, Sam following his motion.

"Sure you can't stick around, maybe we can catch up a bit more?" Sam asked already knowing the answer.

"You know how it is Braddock, can't mix the dead and the living for too long or bad things happen." Matt shrugged. "But there'll be time for catching up when you kick the bucket." He clapped his hands down on his friends shoulders. "Now go have babies with that hot sniper chick of yours."

Sam's face turned beat red. "Matt!"

His friend just laughed. "And say hello to my girls for me?"

The blush was pushed back a bit as the sniper nodded. "I will, you take care alright?"

"I'm already dead, what's the worst that can happen?" Matt joked but let his hands fall from the blondes shoulders so he could clasp one of Sam's hands in his. "Seriously though, you be careful. I don't want you here any sooner then you have to be."

"Heh, Bye Matt."

"Later Sam."

And just like that, like the others before him Matt was gone. No blinking in and out of existence, no emotion filled fade away, just empty space. His best friend gone once more, only this time not leaving as much pain behind.

A sharp stabbing shot through his head. 'Okay, still left pain behind' Sam though as his knees buckled causing him to hit the floor clutching his head in pain. 'What's going on?'

The ghostly bar around him started to fade; he let out a cry as the pain got worse and just as Sam fell onto his hands his vision went black and his mind stopped.

xXx

Blue eyes shot open as his head shot up and off the glass table he had fallen asleep on. Panting heavily the blonde frowned, he felt like he had just run a marathon and he didn't know why. Sam couldn't shake the feeling like he was forgetting something. Something important.

Wordy frowned from his spot a few seats down as the sniper shot awake. The father had been watching him for the past few minutes, when he first noticed Sam falling asleep. He had been glad, everyone had noticed how tired Sam had seemed the past few weeks and they were starting to get worried. "Everything okay, Sam?" he asked drawing the blonde confused stare towards him.

"Ah- Oh… fine." Sam's blue eyes traveled around the room, taking in the design like it was wrong or something. He chastised himself for falling asleep at work, sure he was tired but that was no excuse. Sam rubbed at his heavy eyes with his right hand, his fingers pinching the bridge between his eyes as he racked his brain for what he couldn't remember. It was something important.

Sam froze.

Wordy felt his worry deepen when Sam slowly gazed down at his wrist. "Sam?"

A hair elastic. He blinked. Lee's hair elastic. A vision, a memory of his pulling it out of Lee's hair flashed behind his eyes and Sam felt like his stomach had dropped out of his body. "I was asleep?" He asked the father sitting beside him, his eyes trained on the black band around his wrist

"For a few minutes yeah."

He had been dreaming, Sam realized. Matt had said something like that… oh god. Matt. Lee. Lou… Sarah. Dropping his hand to cover his mouth Sam took a steadying breath before remembering something else.

Shakily the blonde sniper reached into his inside pocket of his gray shirt and pulled out a folded photo. Blue eyes met blue as Sam looked over at Wordy a smile the father had never seen crossing the younger mans features. "You guys really should have let Spike wear the brown dress." He laughed at Wordy's shocked face. Getting to his feet Sam shoved all his papers he had been sleeping on into a pile and headed to the door.

"Wait, Sam." Wordy called to his back, getting to his feet, confusion written on his face. "How did you find out about-"

"Let's just say I have a source." Sam smiled flipping the picture over for the other officer to glimpse. "A creepy source, but he means the best." Sensing he hadn't cleared anything up Sam just shook his head. To be honest, he was just as confused, but more than willing to take it in stride. "Maybe I should make some copies of this." He added under his breath as he started towards Sydney's desk.

Ed, Spike and Jules, who had been working out in the space next to the conference room, looked up at Wordy's loud protests as he and Sam exited the doorway. "What's going on?" Ed asked holding the punching bag still.

Wordy glanced over to his friend before going over to Spike and finally landing on Sam. "I'm just saying that it was a while ago, and we finally just finished scrubbing out minds clean of when we actually had to see it."

The blonde sniper pouted, his plan ruined but Wordy's sense of fair play. "Oh fine then." Shifting the pile of papers in his hands he folded the picture in half again before throwing it to Spike, who was still jogging on the treadmill, who caught it expertly. "Just remember this next time you get incriminating information about me, I was nice enough not to pass it around." Sam muttered turning on his heel pulling out his cell phone along the way.

Spike frowned at the paper Sam had thrown at him, but unfolded it anyways and promptly lost his footing on the exercise equipment. Coming to a firm land on his butt beside the treadmill Spike gaped openly at the photo in his hand. "Wha-How…ACK!"

"What is it?" Jules asked coming up behind Spike, meaning to help him to his feet but instead caught sight of the image as well. "Oh… That's still a sight I wish I could un-see." She set her hands on her hips looking up to stare across the foyer to Sam who was staring at his phone. "Wonder how Sam managed to get his hands on that photo."

"Said he got it from a creepy source, who means the best." Wordy supplied. The four exchanged glances before abandoning whatever they had been doing before to trail after the blonde.

Sam had ducked out into the hallway and had just sat down on the bench outside the doorway, his papers on his lap and cell phone to his ear when his other four team mates rushed out into the hallway. They were just about to start hounding him with questions but Sam just held up a finger for them to wait a minute. A grin, then, "Hey Mom." Into the phone.

Ed raised an eyebrow at the smile on his rookies face. Crossing his arms the four of them waited as Sam turned his attention to the phone.

"No, no, everything's fine Mom," He rolled his eyes. "No I didn't break anything… Ha ha, Work's fine…"

Behind them Greg stepped out to stand by Spike, raising an eyebrow curiously, wondering why exactly his team was watching Sam talk on the phone, they did have work to do.

Silently Spike just handed him the photo then pointed to Sam.

The blonde smiled brushing imaginary dirt off his pant leg as his mother spoke in his ear. "Nah Mom, I just called to remind you that Sarah and I love you."


End file.
